Manitoba Arts Council

Role | Location

HISTORY :

The Manitoba Arts Council undertook a comprehensive service survey of MAC clientele in the spring of 2004. Surveys were sent to 1899 people drawn from MAC's Stacatto database, representing emerging artists, established artists, artists from cultural minorities, francophone artists, schools, organizations and others. Respondents were asked to self-identify. The database covered a period of two years, including artists and organizations that had been both awarded and declined.

With a deadline date of May 31, 2004, a total of 350 people responded, representing an 18.4% return rate.

GOALS :

The goals of the survey were to measure the effectiveness of MAC service, as experienced by our clients; identify areas of general service concern requiring improvement or rethinking; as well as determine the success of more recent initiatives.

REPORT :

This report (Adobe PDF - 35KB) presents general observations drawn from the Service Survey Results - Amalgamated, which encompasses all the results from the reports of the 6 sub-groups as outlined above.

RESULTS :

The Manitoba Arts Council would like to thank everyone who responded to the survey and offered their honest opinions. We are extremely pleased with the high response rate and with the level of overall satisfacion the majority of our clients expressed with our service.

We have also noted where improvements can be made, and where service gaps may exist.

In response to some of the concerns expressed in the report (Adobe PDF - 35KB), the following actions have occured since the spring of 2004.

All staff have attended a full-day, service seminar focussing on the results of this survey and the needs of our clients.

An ongoing service discussion component has been added to our monthly staff meeting agenda.

MAC is determining the possibility of conducting additional grant writing workshops across the province.

The structure and content of our guidelines and application forms are under review for clarity and simplicity.

An open call for jurors has been placed on our website.

There has been increased information and education internally and externally about the contents of our website.

Discussions are ongoing about the potential of downloading individual program application forms from our website.

MAC is researching a pilot e-granting project.

All of MAC's french administrative letters, forms, documents etc. have been reviewed/revised for clarity and consistency.

Staff have committed to ensuring email and voicemail messages inform their clients when they are available for calls/consultations.

MAC is supporting the development of a comprehensive cultural policy.

MAC is convening community partners with the aim of establishing an arts advocacy group and campaign.

While these initiatives do not recognize all of the feedback we have received, we believe they are positive steps forward. We are continually reviewing the results of this survey to determine what additional steps may be taken.

New service needs emerge on a regular basis as technology changes, expectations change, programs change and policy changes. We also understand that many service needs are highly unique and individual. The Manitoba Arts Council and our staff are committed to working towards offering the highest possible standard of service within this continually changing environment.

(Click here to download the free Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer.)